I’ve got to level with you. The fiscal year ending on June 30th has been a rugged one.
Last July, when our fiscal year started, we lost all our federal funding after President Trump and Congress eliminated all current and future support for public broadcasting. Then in early May, a national consultant hired to develop a plan to restructure Southern Oregon University in response to enrollment declines and an impending fiscal crisis, recommended that SOU eliminate its annual support for JPR.
Yet, through it all, JPR has persevered -- thanks to the amazing support of our listeners!
A broad-based increase in listener support has lifted us up and helped us continue to do our work and serve the region. With the foundation of our core funding model shifting rapidly, it's clear that sustaining this increase in public support in the years ahead will be critical to our future.
JPR has a long history of adapting to change and is well positioned to respond to both funding challenges and a dynamic media environment. In the face of these changes, we continue to stay focused on identifying clear priorities and aligning our strategy with our organizational capacity to sustainably achieve them.
One of our priorities for the coming year is expanding our local news capacity. The decline of access to local news in Southern Oregon and Northern California has created information gaps that make it harder for people to engage in local decisions, meaningfully participate in civic life, and protect themselves against natural disasters. With fewer local reporters on the ground, consistent coverage of city and county governance, courts, and schools is not possible. And, when wildfires and other emergencies take place, there are fewer news organizations monitoring public safety channels, fact-checking information and providing timely alerts to citizens. This lack of local reporting leaves residents with less shared information about their communities and contributes to greater isolation and political polarization.
In July, we'll be welcoming a new reporter to the JPR newsroom to cover the Southern Oregon Coast. And, beginning this year and continuing over the next three years, we'll be adding up to five additional regionally-based reporters to strengthen our local journalism. More reporters in the field will allow our newsroom to provide more communities with reliable, fact-based journalism and improve our coverage of environmental issues, housing, public health, education, tribal issues, and local government.It will also enable us to produce more consistent, insightful reporting from across Southern Oregon and Northern California communities on a regular basis, with deeper attention to the issues that shape everyday life, especially in rural and under-covered areas.
Your continued investment in our mission is the engine of this work.Thank you for showing up for JPR in such a big way this fiscal year. While JPR’s service to our region spans over 57 years, in many ways it feels like a new beginning.
